Chicken Pot Pie

Rule #351: Comfort Food makes everything better.

Chicken Pot Pie has to be the ultimate stick-to-your ribs, warm-your-heart-up, nobody-makes-it-like-mama dish. Everyone can tell you a story about their favorite Chicken Pot Pie (or where to find the best one). Every time that I make it, I think of fuzzy socks, warm sweaters, and the smell of wood burning in the fire.

 

There’s nothing quite like a creamy, savory, flaky Chicken Pot Pie.

Unless it has wine in it. And shocking… mine does!

To Make the Chicken Pot Pie

First, preheat your oven to 400.

In a Dutch oven or large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.

Add onions, carrots, and potatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Partially cover, stir, and sauté until softened (about 10 minutes).

Finally, add the asparagus, peas, and thyme sprigs. Cook one more minute.

Dust the vegetables with the flour; stir and toss to coat.

Cook for 1 minute then pour in the white wine. You’re going to deglaze the pan with the wine, so be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all that goodness up. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Feel free to sub chicken stock if you’d prefer. (Apologies for the blurry pic – I must have been in quite the hurry.)

Once the wine has deglazed the pan and started to create a sauce (about 2 minutes), add the milk. Lower the heat to medium-low, partially cover, and cook until it becomes a thick, creamy sauce (about 5 minutes).

Just look at that sexy sauce.

Toss in the 1 tbs. each of fresh chives and parsley.

Then season with 1½ tsp. salt and ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper.

Now, gently fold in the cooked chicken. We use a chopped up rotisserie chicken, but you can also cook chicken breasts on the stove or the oven.

If vegetables are still too crunchy, cover the pot and put in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes (or until veggies get tender). Allow to cool, then taste for texture and seasonings. At this point, you can keep the chicken mixture warm until ready to bake the topping (max 2 hours).

Spoon the filling into greased ramekins or one large oven-proof dish until ¾ full.

We use these Puff Pastry Sheets for our pies. Just be sure to thaw them (overnight in the fridge or on the counter for a couple of hours).

Make sure to spray your ramekins with cooking spray. Now, using a small knife, cut the puff pastry sheets to fit the tops of your ramekins. Cut little slits into the tops of each pie so they have some breathing room shall we say. This will keep the puff pastry sheets from getting too puffy.

As I said before, you can absolutely use a singular pot pie dish! Just follow the same instructions.

Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, or until the puff pastry is golden-brown and the pie filling is cooked through.

Let the pies cool 5 minutes and serve warm. Feel free to garnish with chives and parsley.

Wine Recommendations

 

I recently asked one of my favorite bloggers to recommend a good wine for this recipe, and here’s the very sage advice he gave me:

“You should never cook with a wine that you will not drink. Cheap ‘cooking’ wine is a NEVER buy because you have no idea what it really is and the flavors that it will impart. When wine is called for in a recipe it is to add a flavor and a richness so you should use a wine that has structure and is medium-bodied. I would recommend a French Chablis (which is Chardonnay) grown in the Chablis AOC in France. I know you have a Total Wine near by so I would tell them your want a ‘true’ French Chablis in the $20-$25 price range. One glass for your recipe and the rest to enjoy! Tell them that you are cooking and drinking with it.

“If you want to stick with a Chardonnay from the USA, I would look for an unoaked Chardonnay or one that is only lightly oaked.”

Rick from Strong Coffee to Red Wine always has the BEST wine recs for all kinds of situations and occasions. He recently went to Napa for a Wine Bloggers’ Conference (now that sounds like a good time to me!) and came back with even more great recommendations.

I completely agree with him that you should never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink, and I kept his advice when making this dish. The Chablis we used was PHENOMENAL not only in the pot pies, but also as the wine we enjoyed with dinner. I’m not good at describing wines they way Rick does, but I can assure you that it paired perfectly. Major kudos to him for the rec!

But look how cute they turned out? You can always opt for a large casserole dish or pie dish to serve your King of Comfort CPP.

We love to serve our Chicken Pot Pie with Creamy Kale Salad with Crispy Panko.

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